Point-to-Point Microwave Systems for Broadcasting

Guest Speaker: Brian Wright & Sale Lilly

February 21, 2017

Our February meeting featured guest speakers Brian Wright and Sale Lilly from Cielo Networks, manufacturer of mission-critical, IP microwave equipment. They discussed point-to-point IP microwave systems for the broadcast industry. A PDF copy of their Powerpoint presentation is provided below.

With the growing dominance of IP infrastructure in the broadcast studio and the desire to broadcast multiple channels of digital programming from our radio and TV stations, there are unprecedented demands for high-reliability, broad-bandwidth data interconnections between our studios, transmitter sites, and other off-site locations. Many broadcasters are now fulfilling this need with low-latency, broad bandwidth, full-duplex microwave systems such as products from Cielo. This topic was a natural extension of our January meeting, in which Logitek’s Frank Grundstein outlined various IP media transport and control architectures that our industry is rapidly embracing.

Brian and Sale discussed the benefits and challenges of interconnecting broadcast facilities with IP microwave equipment. They outlined what’s required for high-reliability and cover the steps necessary to install and license such a system. They touched on use of the familiar ("Part 74") Broadcast Auxiliary band frequencies while highlighting the benefits and challenges of utilizing Industrial/Business Pool ("Part 101") spectrum that's recently become available to broadcasters for studio-transmitter links. Our meeting was held at CBS Radio which uses Cielo equipment as part of their studio-transmitter-link infrastructure.

Brian Wright is Cielo’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. He brings more than 21 years of experience in the broadband wireless industry, including PTP Microwave, WiMAX, and LMDS. He has held technical management positions for leading systems suppliers, including Ceragon, Nera, Fujitsu, SpectraPoint, and Bosch Telecom. With his strong technical background, he has worked with customers in various industries to develop digital broadband network design and deployment strategies and supported many successful network builds and network life cycle QOS assurance.

Sale Lilly, Cielo’s Sales Director, has over 25 years of wireless and associated industry experience, working in sales and business development for three startup businesses and two international companies. Prior to joining Cielo Networks, Sale served in senior business development & sales executive positions with Nera, Ceragon, Spectrapoint (Cisco/Motorola JV), and Bosch Telecom. Before these commercial wireless positions, Sale was a business development and sales director for the Defense Systems Equipment Group at Texas Instruments.

A bite to eat was kindly provided by our friends at Cavell, Mertz & Associates about 6:30 pm. We had a brief bit of Chapter 37 business about 7:00 pm, and our presentation followed shortly thereafter. Tom Shedlick of CBS Radio provided a facility tour following the meeting.